When you think of young talent at shortstop in the Mets system, you think of Ruben Tejada. This past season, another player ended up performing so well at shortstop that DePodesta stated that he will have a chance to remain at shortstop moving up through the system – before Jose Reyes signed with the Marlins.
The player here is Daniel (or Danny) Muno, the soon to be 23 year old that was drafted in the 8th round of the 2011 draft by the Mets (and also the 26th round of the 2010 draft by the Cubs). Muno is a 5’11” and bats from both sides of the plate very well as his numbers in his first Minor League season show:
2011: Brooklyn – 59 G, 220 AB, .355 BA, .466 OBP, 45 R, 78 H, 23 2B, 3 3B, 2 HR, 43 BB
Those numbers are incredible. He actually ended up leading the Mets farm system in batting average, which isn’t hard to do with a .355 BA. His walks as a 22 year old is also amazing. In fact, this was enough for Baseball America to name Muno as having the best strike zone discipline in the farm system. In order to be considered a real prospect in this farm system, he will need to repeat this next season, and at a higher level. His age is starting to work against him. Being 23 is still very young, but to be considered a major prospect to the Mets or to other teams he needs to be near major level within the next three seasons, which is entirely possible.
Whenever a player puts up numbers like the ones he did last year, All eyes will be on him to see if he can do it again. If starts off well this season, he will start to become a household name. I’m not sure about how his defense is, but even if he is average, without Reyes on the Mets he has a clear path to the majors (with Tejada shifting to second base).
